County Approves Plan to Boost Food Stamp Enrollment

Audio

Aired 4/23/09

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors recently voted in favor of a plan to boost food stamp enrollment in the county. Why does San Diego currently have one of the lowest food stamp enrollment rates in the nation? And, how can this new plan increase awareness and participation in the local food stamp program? We speak to KPBS reporter Joanne Faryon about her on-going investigation into the problems with the county's food stamp program.

Maureen Cavanaugh: When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the San Diego Food Bank earlier this month, he pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people in the state who could qualify for food stamps, weren't enrolled in the program. That's especially true here in San Diego, where we have the lowest food stamp participation rate of any urban center in the country.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors now says it intends to do something to correct that by approving just this week, a new three year plan to boost food stamp enrollment. Many advocates for the poor say it's a move in the right direction, but it still does not go far enough.